You gotta love food - 20th May 2011

The best exercise for the heart is lifting someone up.

Now I don’t know about you, but me – I love food and eating and drinking, it’s one of the reasons I have a weight problem. So in my quest to still be able to enjoy as much tasty food as possible I look for new ideas and different foods all the time. For example yesterday I found out that my childhood favourites – SNAPS – were only 3pp and unlike most things the packet has actually gotten bigger. How did I find out, I used my calculator! I’m constantly staggered by the amount of members that don’t have or use their calculator (and if you don’t have the electronic one, the cardboard one will do). There’s so much more choice out there if only we put a little effort in and work out the ProPoints. When I go shopping, I tend to take a marker pen and my calculator with me and I spend that little bit longer working out the ProPoints in things. It usually means I end up with a better selection of foods and it also enables me to take advantage of the bargains in-store.

Speaking of bargains, I finally went shopping last night, I’m still working through the cupboards and freezer but I needed and wanted some green stuff and some of those warbuton square wraps (4pp) ideal for using as a pizza base and sandwich thins (3pp) which are just delicious and are lovely toasted, so I had to go to Morrisons as it’s the only place I know that sells them at the moment. I noticed that the Fray Bentos pies are on offer 3 for a fiver and I know their maximum 20pp each and they easily serve two (I didn’t buy – I already have 3 in cupboard from last time they were on offer!)

So the thought for today is anything that’s worth having (i.e. weight loss) usually involves some effort, so are you prepared to put in that effort?

A major part of that effort involves self control with takes a kind mental energy and of course it gets depleted like other kind of energy. So it’s important to remember that when you’re using energy to try to fight your long established habits and stay in control, you need to account for that by boosting your energy in some way.

And the easiest way to ensure you have plenty of energy is simply making sure you get enough sleep or by finding other ways to boost your energy so that you are offsetting the energy you are using for your self regulation and self control. We talked about activity last week in meetings and it’s proven that being more active gives you more energy, you may think moving more would wear you out but it doesn’t it actually energises you. If you don’t believe me go try it out, have a brisk walk round the block, get some fresh air in your lungs and see how you feel.

Back to food and I had my first ‘tuna melt’ yesterday mmm it was delicious and thank you to Jason for suggesting it in the meeting Tuesday night, I’ve found a new favourite meal. Now the one I made was quite high in ProPoints because of the bread I used and also because of the fact I used enough tuna stuff to cover twice the amount I did! But what I’m going to do next time is spread it further and have it on Warbutons Sandwich Thins, so it will be;

1 tin tuna (3)
1tbsp sweetcorn (1pp)
1 ½ tbsp Hellmanns light Mayo (2pp)
4 sandwich thins (12pp)
40g cheddar (4pp)
Serves 2 at 12pp, serve with huge side salad.

Mix tuna, sweetcorn and mayo together. Toast one side of thins then turn over, spread tuna mix between each thin and toast with cheese then toast.
I’m thinking I could add diced pepper and spring onion or mushroom too to bulk it out even more. Or instead of the sandwich thin use the square wraps and make a huge tuna melt.

Anyway I’ve gotta take Alfie for his walk, he’s whining!

Have a fabulous Friday, the weekend is almost here. xx